On Friday the BJP
forced the adjournment of both Houses of Parliament for the
fourth consecutive day over ?Coalgate?, amplifying the threat of
the remaining period of the monsoon session being washed out and
rekindling the debate over increasingly inefficient use of the
legislature?s time. This is a trend that has been witnessed
particularly since the 13th Lok Sabha and which peaked in the
UPA-II regime. While the government has planned the passage of
30 Bills in the current session, it has so far managed to obtain
Parliament?s assent for only a tiny fraction of this.

With
political parties finding it easier to disrupt legislative
business rather than debate and discuss issues ? especially when
they are in the Opposition ? the gap between the business
planned and executed in Parliament has widened at an accelerated
pace over the past decade. Most state assemblies are no
exception to this trend, indicating parties of all hues are to
blame for undermining the productivity of these democratically
elected councils.

Long-pending
financial sector Bills ? on insurance and pension ? haven?t even
been listed for this session due to political bickering. Among
those slated for ?consideration and passing?, key economic Bills
that could hang fire due to the current impasse include the
Companies Bill and Land Acquisition Bill, both aimed at easing
the process of setting up of industries and doing business.

The Companies Bill,
which has been in the making for well over a decade now, seeks
to replace the 55-year-old Companies Act with a new regime
marked by non-intrusive regulation, increased shareholder
democracy and enhanced disclosures. The land Bill is expected to
ease availability of land for industries, while duly regarding
the displaced population with a strong rehabilitation and
resettlement process. The latest version of the Bill allows the
government to acquire land even for projects involving private
money to serve ?public interest?.

Another Bill the
government was hoping to push in the current session but could
be a casualty of the House paralysis is the Forward Contracts
Regulation (Amendment) or FCRA Bill. This is meant to facilitate
freer entry of financial institutions into the futures market,
diversify the products basket and strengthen the sector
regulator. Although Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has
unflinchingly opposed the FCRA Bill, the government has
repeatedly taken it to the Cabinet over the last few weeks,
showing its keenness to reform and grow the commodities market,
which is still grossly underdeveloped in India.

Thanks to the
impasse, the passing of the Banking Law Amendment Bill seeking
to raise the cap on shareholders? voting rights in private banks
to 26% from 10% now could also get delayed further.

What
is at stake is not simply the parliamentary output but also the
quality of it, which is reflected in the shrinking of time spent
for debate over Bills. The last several sessions have witnessed
legislative business being conducted haphazardly towards the end
of the session and more than half of the session?s total
legislative business being carried out in the last quarter.

The winter session
in 2010, marked by the uproar over the damning CAG report over
the 2G spectrum allocation, is by far the most disrupted one in
Parliament history, with just eight actual sittings (5%) of the
Lok Sabha out of 144 planned and three sittings (2%) of the
Rajya Sabha out of 120 planned (PRS Legislative Research data).
The other sessions during UPA-II (since the budget session of
2009) have also been unremarkable for their productivity.

The slippage leads
to a mounting backlog of pending business, forcing the
government of the day to skip or curtail debates, with the
Opposition often willing to oblige. For example, if the number
of Bills pending in Parliament was 96 before the 2012 budget
session, it rose to 101 after the session.

Agreed, it is also
incumbent upon the Opposition to expose the lapses and
wrongdoings of the government and all parliamentary protests
cannot be termed as unproductive. But prolonged disruption of
parliamentary time and the unwillingness to debate are clearly
untenable.

As one of the
accompanying tables sourced from PRS Legislative Research shows,
since the 13th Lok Sabha (1999-2004), when the BJP-led NDA was
in power and the Congress was in the Opposition, the actual
sitting hours of the house have turned to be less than the hours
proposed. And the decline has been progressive. Clearly,
political parties have come to terms with the practice of
wasting Parliament?s time.